oward the
south and east, where people and cities were, and the spring; then
toward the north, where there was still only fast-bound ice and snow
stretching away over thousands of miles of almost unknown country, the
great wild northland called British America, traversed by the hunters
and trappers of the Hudson Bay Company--vast empire ruled by private
hands, a government within a government, its line of forts and posts
extending from James Bay to the Little Slave, from the Saskatchewan
northward to the Polar Sea. In the early afternoon she stood there now,
having made her way up to the height with some difficulty, for the
ice-crust was broken, and she was obliged to wade knee-deep through some
of the drifts, and go round others that were over her head, leaving a
trail behind her as crooked as a child's through a clover field.
Reaching the plateau on the summit at last, and avoiding the hidden pits
of the old earth-work, she climbed the icy ladder, and stood on the
white floor again with delight, brushing from her woollen skirt and
leggings the dry snow which still clung to them. The sun was so bright
and the air so exhilarating that she pushed back her little fur cap, and
drew a long breath of enjoyment. Everything below was still
white-covered--the island and village, the Straits and the mainland; but
coming round the eastern point four propellers could be seen floundering
in the loosened ice, heaving the porous cakes aside, butting with their
sharp high bows, and then backing briskly to get headway to start
forward again, thus breaking slowly a passageway for themselves, and
churning the black water behind until it boiled white as soap-suds as
the floating ice closed over it. Now one boat, finding by chance a
weakened spot, floundered through it without pause, and came out
triumphantly some distance in advance of the rest; then another, wakened
to new exertions by this sight, put on all steam, and went pounding
along with a crashing sound until her bows were on a line with the
first. The two boats left behind now started together with much
splashing and sputtering, and veering toward the shore, with the hope
of finding a new weak place in the floe, ran against hard ice with a
thud, and stopped short; then there was much backing out and floundering
round, the engines panting and the little bells ringing wildly, until
the old channel was reached, where they rested awhile, and then made
another beginning. These manoeuvr